Cruising the BBC Technology pages I was rather surprised to learn that the online game Entropia Universe has been granted a licence to be a bank by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.

Now I am not into gaming, online Sudoku and Patience is about my limit, but I can grasp the fun of playing with unknown people around the world.  I can understand wanting to ‘buy’ accessories to make the game more interesting.  What I cannot come to terms with is using a virtual world as your real bank.

Apparently Mindark, the developers of the game, plan to offer interest-bearing accounts, where you can deposit your salary, pay bills or lend cash through the in-game bank.

I guess the only thing you can say about this is that, the way banking is at the moment, there is very little difference between reality and the virtual world.